Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Arrivals and Departures (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Arrivals and Departures.

The few people remaining in the airport turned their heads as the news reported on air crashes resulting from the Shift, which were apparently numerous. Frank suddenly became quickly thankful his flight was so late. Had he been in the air, he might not have survived. And the flight coming in? Well -- had it been any later or the Shift a moment sooner -- it could have been a tragic landing instead of a bad one.

He started to feel grateful to be alive, even if he was in the wrong body. He also knew all the codes to his penthouse apartment, so he could get in easily. But he would still need clothes soon enough. He had no idea what luggage belonged to this body -- either in the overhead bin or in checked luggage (and they were shuffling people out of the plane and airport too quickly to collect either, anyway). So he began to wonder if she lived nearby or if she was a visitor to the area. If he couldn’t get any of her clothes, would stores re-open soon?

He told himself these were all small concerns. For today, he’d just be glad to be alive.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

End the Cycle

Roland awoke in a strange, unfamiliar room. The most dramatic change was the fact that he was now in a woman’s body, but it soon became the least interesting thing about the whole experience. Among the dusty equipment was a pristine notebook, which outlined that all the electronic equipment was a tool for stealing someone else’s body. Presumably, this was why he was now this woman; though he questioned why anyone would steal his body of all people! The notebook further outlined how to use the mouse and keyboard as a click and point way to cycle through cameras and select a target to swap with -- which was an option now open to him. And that would explain why the keyboard, mouse, and main screen lacked the same dust as everything else. Of course, there was another option. He could simple leave. This woman’s body would then become his, and, sure, someone would likely find this room and start the cycle all over again, but it was still a very tempting option...

Roland awoke in a strange, unfamiliar room. The most dramatic change was the fact that he was now in a woman’s body, but it soon became the least interesting thing about the whole experience. Among the dusty equipment was a pristine notebook, which outlined that all the electronic equipment was a tool for stealing someone else’s body. Presumably, this was why he was now this woman; though he questioned why anyone would steal his body of all people! The notebook further outlined how to use the mouse and keyboard as a click and point way to cycle through cameras and select a target to swap with -- which was an option now open to him. And that would explain why the keyboard, mouse, and main screen lacked the same dust as everything else. Of course, there was another option. He could simple leave. This woman’s body would then become his, and, sure, someone would likely find this room and start the cycle all over again, but it was still a very tempting option...

Ronnie 1/2

“Anna!” Ronnie shouted, “I need your help!”

Anna squealed when she saw him. It had been months since she had seen Ronnie in his Ronald form instead of her Rhonda form. “Did you get splashed with warm water?” She asked, knowing full well his condition.

“Yes! It wasn’t even that much! A caterer got some hot tea on me! Luckily, it didn’t get on my dress! You need to get some cold water from inside to splash on me so I can transform back to being Rhonda! I can’t go, because everyone is in there! Especially Marvin! Please, you’re the only one here who even knows my secret!”

“You haven’t told him!? You’re getting married to him in an hour! I think the fact that you change genders when different tempurate water splashes on you is an important thing to share with your future spouse!”

“But I hoped to never be Ronald again! I wanted to stay as Rhonda forever! The tea was an accident. Please just help me!”

“Of course I will, but you HAVE to tell him! I guess just wait out here, and I will go inside and see what I can do!”

“Thank you.”

Monday, February 10, 2025

Sparks

There wasn’t a loud in the sky; there was no rain the forecast. When the lightning bolt pierced the sky and struck the pool, Daniel and Skye were truly surprised. As the remnant electrical bolts simmered on the surfaced, they were both happy they were not hurt. However, they were less happy to realize the fact that jolt had somehow swapped their bodies.

They both screamed in fear as they figured it out. Daniel wanted to get out immediately to try to find a way back to his own body, but Skye questioned that. If a random lightning bolt had swapped them once here; maybe another would soon do so again. Daniel argued back that lighting is well known for never striking the same place twice; Skye responded that lightning isn’t known for swapping people’s bodies either.

The fight continued for several minutes before they both calmed down. The fight was a proxy; an excuse for the horrible situation that they were now in that they had to deal with...

Cramps

Up until this point, Martin’s participation in the experiment had gone swimmingly. Swapping bodies with Lexi had been practically a non-issue for him. He had grown up with two sisters, so putting on makeup or choosing a fashionable outfit were just things he knew how to do.

But then about three weeks in on his way to work, the cramps started. Nothing could have prepared him for period pains. They were like nothing he had ever felt before. For about ten minutes, he couldn’t even move. He had known they were coming eventually, but no amount of warning could have prepared him for this. Were Lexi’s particularly bad? Or was this just something all women felt?

His hope was that he’d just get used to them. After all, he still had six more months left in this experiment!

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Honey

My body felt trapped and frozen while sitting in that chair. I couldn’t move or speak, but I could see. I could see the scientist fiddling with the knobs on the machine; I could see them poke at me with various medical instruments and feeding tubes. From time to time, I would black out -- I assumed those were night and my body was simply tired.

But things changed one day when a man came in. He also fiddled with the knobs and suddenly I could move again. He hugged me in a way that was oddly intimate that made me uncomfortable before speaking in a soothing tone in a language I couldn’t understand.

“Do you speak English?” I asked.

He seemed confused, but he began speaking with a heavy accent in broken English, “Honey, did machine...hurt you?”

“Honey? I’m --” I paused as I looked down at two thing, smooth legs. I reached up to feel my face. My beard was gone and it was even smoother. Even if I had been shaven when I first got in this chair, there should be substantial stubble by now. As the realization sunk in, I continued speaking, “I’m not your ‘Honey.’ I’m not your wife or girlfriend or whoever you think I am. This machine must be some sort of body swapping machine, which means my body has to be around here somewhere. I’m not sure if you know enough to use it to get her and I back to normal?”

The man looked confused. I had probably spoken too quickly in a language he just didn’t understand too well. But I needed to explain that I wasn’t who he thought I was!

Trans Rights Are Human Rights

An interviewer asked Arthur about his dress, and if an award’s ceremony was the correct place to make a ‘political’ statement.

Arthur took a deep breath before answering, “There’s nothing political about my dress. Trans people exist. The world needs to accept that. I thought things were getting better; I thought the world was getting better. But then we regressed so much, so rapidly. And, weirdly, I thought the Great Shift would’ve made people more understanding. Somehow it’s only made people more hateful.

“Yet I wonder how much people really know about their new bodies, or even how much they knew about their old ones. I was trans before the Shift, but I never could’ve afforded the surgery to make my body match who I was on the inside. And then Great Shift swapped me into a celebrity, the body of my dreams. For me, it worked out. But for so many people it didn’t. There are more people than ever who have a body that doesn’t match who they are on the inside; who should be allowed to change that. And yet there’s a movement that wants to force people to conform to the genders they got as a result of the Shift. Trans people were marginalized before the Shift, and are still marginalized now. Trans rights are human rights. That’s not a political statement; that’s just a basic fact of humanity. It was before the Great Shift, and it still is after the fact.”

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Thank You

“I d-d-don’t know wh-why you’re gi-gi-giving me all this money, Ma’am,” The homeless man stuttered as he eyed the large amount of cash.

“I think you do. You asked for change yesterday. I didn’t have much, but I dropped what I could. And then that woman not only ignore you, she kicked you as she walked by. She pretended like it was an accident. You said some more confusing words about change; I didn’t think much about it at the time. But this morning, I definitely changed. I had woken up in her body. I can only presume she woke up in mine. I can’t imagine how upset she was to be poor, unattractive, and male. I know I am happy to be rich, beautiful, and female now,” The woman, who up until yesterday had been a man named Marco, said before finally pausing.

“Nope. D-don’t know you. Don’t re-re-remember you. Don’t re-recall getting k-k-k-kicked yesterday either.” The man was starting to twitch.

“Well, thank you,” Marco put the money in the man’s hands before standing up and smiling, “Please let me know if you ever need anything else...”

The man responded only with another twitch.

Chaos

The chaos lastest for about 30 minutes. A child was playing around with what looked like a plastic toy that had the very real ability to swap people’s bodies. Ian had walked through trying to ignore the gathered crowd. He had assumed the commotion was caused some sort of movie shoot or something. Usually pushing through to get where he needed to go was the best course of action. However, in this case that got him swapped with Sasha, an Indian woman wearing faux leather pants.

He thought about trying to snatch the toy from the kid, but the first person who tried that got their body swapped with a dog. The second person who did go their body swapped with a tree. Ian wasn’t going to be the third.

The child continued to swap people slowly but surely until finally someone took aggressive action. Instead of stealth to take the toy, they used speed to tackle the child. The person who did it likely had no idea quite how strong their current body was, as the kid felt to the ground and looked hurt. While a few people rushed over to make sure that the child would be okay, Ian’s eyes were on the toy. It had fallen out of the kid’s hands and shattered into a thousand pieces on the ground. The liklihood that he (or anyone else) would be getting their own bodies back seemed slim to none. The look on Ian’s face reflected this realization.

Friday, February 7, 2025

Up-and-Coming

A few years back, Rex was seen as an up-and-coming actor after appearing in a string of unexpected successful indie films. His star was on the rise, and he finally scored a multi-million dollar deal to lead in a major motion picture from a mainstream studio. But with only a few days left of filming, the production was struck by something that affected the entire world: The Great Shift.

Despite a long delay, production did pick back up in a few months. The on location sets were relaced with a green screen studio, and Rex was given a motion capture suit. He knew what it all meant. They’d CGI his original body in with advanced AI; they’d deep fake his original voice in as well. They’d get these last few scenes in come hell or high water, and then his career was done.

After all, he was now in the body of a graying 60 year old woman. There wasn’t exactly a huge demand for that type of actor in the big budget film world. He should’ve been an action star or an Oscar winner, but now he was probably either going to be stuck as a character actor or simply go into early retirement.

Tune Up

No one ever bothered to bring the magic taxi in for a tune up. What was the point? If the check engine or low oil lights came on, that would be a problem for the next person who swapped into the driver’s body. Despite the warning lights, the thing never seemed to break down either. That didn’t mean things didn’t go wrong. While Robin was in the body of the cab driver, a red light came on that showed two people standing side-by-side. She had never seen a warning light like that in any other car. She had no idea what it meant; she didn’t even care.

As it turned out, the taxi was leaking some of its body swapping magic. As such, the distance Robin would have to drive before swapping was extended, and people on the street might randomly fall victim to a swap as the cab passed. Sometimes the distance between the two people was short; other times they were separated by miles.

Rafael was minding his own businesss in Harlem when the magic taxi passed. It’s not like he noticed it; it looked like any other cab. But as the magic taxi drove through Times Square a half hour later, he was suddenly whisked into a completely different body. He gased as could feel the shapely new form, and confused as to how he suddenly got here. And of course, now that he was in Antria’s body, she would soon find herself in a completely new body as well. A continual chain reaction outside the taxi, similar to the one that took place amongst the drivers.

Maybe someday one of them will look into getting that fixed.

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Smarts

Lin and Mark were both overachievers at their college. They were always trying to outdo each other and (as such) pushed their limits to study the furthest reaches of a wide variety of fields from nuclear fusion to gene splicing to quantum physics. When a teacher showed off the latest miniature particle accelerator, both Mark and Lin stayed after class to get a closer look.

But two began to butt heads in order to get a closer look, and it soon evolved into a fight over the object. But the device soon began to whirl with an unexpected sputter and then unleashed a flash of light.

The teacher and the other students could only look at what happened in shock, with Mark and Lin seemingly merged into a single person.

“I think I have a migraine,” Lin’s voice said as the side that looked like her lifted a hand to her head.

“What happened?” This time it was Mark’s voice that spoke out of the same mouth.

Then they somehow screamed in unison as they realized they were now sharing a single body. They each controlled their respective half, but could also feel everything of the other side as though it were their own. And despite the distinction and the initial panic, they found being connected allowed them to bounce ideas off each other inside their singular head. Whereas they had once been rivals, they were now able to be a single collaborator. And as time went on, their merged nature allowed them to be even smarter and more advanced, perhaps even the smartest person on the planet. And yet with each side controlling only half the body, doing something as simple as walking proved challenging.

No Tresspassing

“So, why exactly did you decide to come running on this beach?” Warren asked the female jogger he had just swapped bodies with, “I mean, there are signs warning people not to trespass; the cliffs are fairly steep to come down; and its really out of the way.”

“It’s secluded. I liked the idea of being at peace and alone when I jog,” Stephanie replied from inside Warren’s body, “And the idea of it being somehow ‘forbidden’ seemed alluring. I never expected it was somehow magic and could swap people’s bodies! But I guess I could ask you the same question. Why were you down here?”

“I come here every morning. I know exactly about the beach’s magical properties. I just had to wait for someone who was dumb enough to come down here. Gotta admit that becoming a woman is going to be an interesting adjustment.”

“No! We’ve got to swap back! How would we do that!?”

“Well, we’d have to both be back on the beach at the same time in the morning around when the sun comes up. But that would assume I’d agree to come back.”

“But you said --”

“I said it was an interesting adjustment, but not an unwelcome one! Sure, I’ve swapped with other people before, and swapped back with them all so far. But you? Maybe I will agree to it eventually, but don’t hold your breath for that being any time soon. But you’re free to come down here every morning to try to swap with someone else...”

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Too Much Fun

“I think they’re having way too much fun,” Keiko mumbled to Mika.

“It’s totally sus,” Mike agreed, “I don’t even think they’re trying to use that book to reverse this body swap. They’re both just goofing around as they look at that thing.”

“I give ‘em two days tops.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it seems like fun at first, but wait until they see how no one listens to their ideas or how creepy guys can be!”

“I wasn’t even talking about all of that. My body is just scheduled to get my period in two days.”

Blind Date

Lance felt like his blind date wasn’t going all that well. Sure, Kelly was cute, but it felt like the two had nothing in common. He wondered why his friend Scott had ever set this date up in the first place. He got the feeling Kelly didn’t think it was going well either; she offered to go get drinks to help them both loosen up. She returned with two glasses of pink fizzy liquid.

“What the heck is that?” Lance asked.

“A magical drink,” She replied, “We both down these at the same time, and we’ll switch bodies.”

Lance looked at her like she was crazy. He was into a science, and Kelly was now talking about magical drinks that could swap people’s bodies? He was pretty sure this just went from ‘nothing in common’ to ‘no way in hell.’

She could tell he was skeptical. “If you don’t believe in magic,” She replied, “Then there’s no harm in having the drink, right?”

Lance was quite confident in his belief that magic was pure bullsh*t, so he downed one of the drinks while Kelly took a few sips. Everything went black.


“Hey, Dude, wake up,” Lance heard his own voice say.

Lance had briefly passed out at the bar after having the weird drink, and he was shocked to find out it actually worked! He was in Kelly’s body, and that meant she must be in his! Yet as he looked at his body and it’s mannerisms, something seemed off.

“Look, I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not actually Kelly.” It was weird for Lance to watch his own body talk, “A week ago, this b*tch tricked me into drinking these things and stole my body. She wouldn’t swap back, but she gave me the formula. So I emailed you to set you up on this blind date, so I could take your body. I’m so sorry, Dude! But she’s like two days from having her period.”

“Scott?” Lance asked, “YOU stole my body!? What the hell, man!?”

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Home Early

“What the heck is that?” A voice boomed from the doorway.

“Oh, Chris!” Sam said turning around, “You’re home from work already! I’m just making dinner.”

“Yeah, they were having some problems with the pipes, so the boss let everyone go early. But why is -- why is dinner glowing?” Chris replied.

“Were those gas pipes, Sweetie? It sounds like your seeing things! Now, you go watch some television in the living room while I finish in here.”

Sam ushered Chris into the living room, but he still wanted to see what was on the stove. Sam cursed. He knew he had to finish up fast; Chris was getting too curious. It had been two months now when he first served the stew with a magical potion that had transformed him from Samuel to Samantha and his wife from Christine to Christopher. He had always hated going to work and being the man of the house, but the magical stew had allowed them to swap places, genders, and roles. Now, he was the stay at home wife while Chris went to the office every day. The only catch was that he needed to have them both consume the magical potion weekly or else it would wear off. The mental affects were always the first thing to slip, and he was worried seeing the potion like this could trigger Chris remembering who she really was. And if that happened, this new perfect life could all collapse!

Stop the Spread

The news reports had said masks would held stop the spread of the body swap virus. They said two people catching it outdoors was virutally impossible. Well, it seemed that Evan was suffering from very bad odds when he walked passed the grocery store, swapping bodies with a woman standing outside. The worst part was they were BOTH wearing masks.

They were both required to go to a quarantine center. She offered to drive them both; Evan told the woman he’d be happy to carry her grocery bags to the car for her. As they drove, they went over their basics. Evan was attending college in the area; the woman was a mother of a 10 year old. He didn’t ask her age; he didn’t want to know how old he was now.

With not much in common, they began to talk about the groceries. The woman mentioned buying seaweed and kimchi; how much she loved these foods; and yet how unappealing they now seemed. Evan on the other hand had never had these before, yet he was finding the descriptions he was hearing mouthwatering. It began to dawn on both of them that there was much more to this body swapping virus than merely swapping bodies...

Monday, February 3, 2025

Wizard's Curse

It had taken over a year, but Elric had finally tracked down the wizard that had caused him to was bodies with Princess Astrid. He was ready to slice the old man in half, but not before demanding an antidote so he could return to his original body.

The wizard’s eyes looked vacant as he sat on the bed breathing heavily. He squinted as the he observed the young woman coming at him with a sword. “Do I...know you?” He asked Elric.

“I should hope so. You’re the reason I’m in the body of a princess instead of an adventurer. No, I suggest you provide me with the means to return to my original male body before I cut you from ear to ear.”

“I suppose I deserve that. Though I must confess the memories of my life are much a haze these days.” The wizard sighed, “Do what you must. My body is not much more than a wizened husk these days. The magic left my body months ago, and I feel my life is not far behind. I wish I could help you with a spell or a potion, but I am simply no longer capable. Dispatch with me if you must. But perhaps I can offer a few words in exchange for you sparing me.”

“Speak, Wizard. Though I doubt any words will be enough; I will at least permit you to try.”

“Consider the life of an adventurer is often short and painful. Very few ever achieve anything more than a corpse disgraced by goblins. But a Princess? Well, they live a life of comfort, don’t they? Surrounded by riches and servants, they want for nothing. They command peasants and armies; they become queens. While my memories may be foggy, I would submit that what I did to you might not be a curse...but a blessing.”

Elric sheathed his sword; the old man might be onto something...

Why Not?

As a result of the Great Shift, Jeff suddenly found himself in a nice suburban backyard. He saw a handsome man next to him, and he quickly discovered he was female. He knew it would sound crazy, but he had to ask.

“Are you also someone else’s body?” He questioned the man.

“Yeah,” The man replied, “Do you think we’re married? I mean, not you and I, obviously, I mean, like, these bodies?”

“Probably.”

“I was single before this -- a bit of a geeky guy, to be honest, so this is an improvement.”

“Well, you’re quite attractive now,” Before quickly adding, “Not that I’m gay like that. I was a guy before, too. I played football in high school -- not quite good enough to be on a team when I went to college.” Jeff realized he felt the need to prove his masculinity despite having a body that was clarly attracted to her own husband.

“I mean, it’s technically not gay NOW, is it? And even if it was, who cares? Would it even be a big deal if these bodies were married?”

“Are you suggesting we...? No, I can’t...we can’t...can we?”

“Why not?”

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Performance Art

Upon entering the modern art museum, there was a sign up to participate in a piece of performance art. Most people seemed to ignore it, a few commented that a blank sign up form was a genius art piece in itself. Liam decided to be bold and actually sign himself up.

He didn’t think much about it as he walked through the halls, looking at the various abstract paintings and sculptures. When he finally entered a room with an installation made of lights, he felt woozy; within seconds, he was passed out on the floor.

He awoke on a stage with more of the installation of lights around him. He could whispers of curiosity from a crowd that had gathered, hearing comments about “his reaction” and something about “gender.” As he began to pick himself up he could feel heavy heeled shoes on his feet and a tight constricting dress on his body. At first, he thought the performance art piece had dressed him up as a woman. But it took only a few more moments to realize it was much more extreme than that -- he had actually become a woman!

It only continued to get more surreal as his own body walked out on stage, speaking of the gender disparity in the arts, about how the performance art piece had been funded, and how more funding was anticipated now that “she” was in a man’s body. He had swapped bodies with the artist? And it didn’t sound like she was planning to give him his body back...

Hopes Dashed (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Hopes Dashed.

Returning home to my own wife while now in Marla’s body was awkward. I think the only thing I said the entire first day was, “There was an accident at work,” and I left it at that.

I don’t think either of us really wanted to talk about it, and for a few days we didn’t. We didn’t even say a single word to each other. We both went off to our jobs and came home to eat in silence. I think by the time the weekend rolled around, we both realized we had to deal with the discomfort, but it was my wife who spoke up first.

“I don’t think I’m a lesbian. I don’t think I can become a lesbian either,” she told me softly.

I knew what she was trying to say. And if I was honest, Marla’s hormones were affecting me in a similar way. I couldn’t even find my own wife attractive in the way I had before the swap. It certainly blunted my own good news, which is that my company has estimated the time before we’d all have our own bodies back from “never” to “ten to fifteen years.” I wondered if I should even bother sharing the information. We couldn’t exactly just pause our relationship for a decade, and it’d be hard spending that much time with someone you weren’t attracted too. And then there was the idea of kids, which we had both wanted, but in ten years, we’d be in our forties.

I sighed, “We’re breaking up, aren’t we?”

My wife nodded.

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Hard Sell

Richard picked up the latest phone at the store. It was one of those newer models that bragged about embedding AI in the software. He scrolled through a few apps labeled things like “voice changer” and “head swap,” but despite navigating around in them, it didn’t feel like they were doing anything. He shrugged it off, chalking it up to the fact that the phone was probably just a demo.

Just as he was about to put down the phone, a clerk arrived. “Can I help you with anything today?” The clerk asked.

“No, thanks. I’m just browsing,” Richard cleared his throat. His voice sounded strange, higher pitched and just wrong. He spoke again, “Just browsing.” There was nothing he could do to fix it. He tried coughing again, lifting his hands as he did. And that’s when he got a look of his hands.

They were soft, dainty, and feminine. In fact, his entire body had become so. He quickly scrolled to the phone’s camera app to get a better look at himself. His head was now somehow attached to a woman’s body! He tried to open the apps back up, but they now appeared to be locked.

“If you want to unlock the full features, like reversals, you have to pay for the full versions of the software...and the phone itself, of course.” The clerk explained.

Richard wasn’t sure he had a choice as he prepared to pull out his credit card. But his wallet was in the back pocket of his pants, and now he had someone else’s body with a short black skirt -- and absolutely no pockets!

The Jackalope (Part 3)

View Part 1 of The Jackalope.

View Part 2 of The Jackalope.

“We should be out there with Heather and Angela looking for that damned thing!” Cody demanded.

“You can barely walk across the room wearing her boots, how do you think you’ll manage in a foot of snow?” Trey retorted, “I’m pretty sure Angela would kill you if you sprained her ankle or broke her leg or anything like that.”

“All of her boots have heels! She brought several dresses! And the ski suits certainly prioritize fashion over practicality. Did she not know we were going to SKI on a SKI TRIP!?”

“That’s just sort of who Angela is.”

Cody shook his head, “What the hell do you see in her, man?”

“Well, for starters, look in a mirror.” Trey smirked.

“I get that she’s hot. Your last four girlfriends have all been smokin’ hot. But you never have anything in common with any of them.”

“What can I say though? For whatever reason, I love her. And the only reason I’m not helping her and Heather look for that jackalope is because she was so sure that if you were left here by yourself that you’d go off searching and probably push Angela’s body too hard. I’d prefer it if you didn’t get yourself -- or Angela’s body -- killed simply because her body’s not used to exerting itself the way you are. I mean, I get that you and Heather think she’s shallow, but she can actually read people pretty accurately -- even if she is sometimes rude about it.”